The Worst Thing About Episode Two of The Young Pope: A Kangaroo Gift

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It’s hard to choose which part of HBO’s The Young Pope I dislike most, so in a column called Young Nope, I share the worst thing from that week’s episode.

Now that we’ve learned that the Young Pope’s real name is Lenny, you’d think we’d be given even a slight reprieve from injustice, at least until episode three or four. But Pope Pius XIII — real name Lenny — is not known for his mercy, and so here we are, in episode two, staring down the snout of a sizable CGI kangaroo.

If one of the unspoken tenets of Catholicism is guilt, I sure do feel guilty about choosing to watch this show!

The kangaroo is discovered by Lenny and his friends as they walk through the enormous warehouse in which gifts for the pope are stored. A gift from the Australian foreign minister, the kangaroo immediately sweetens Pope Pius’s (often) sour mood. “We’ll set him free in the gardens,” he says. No problem. That seems like a good idea.

Photo: HBO

To add insult to injury, it only recently came to my attention that The Young Pope airs not just on Sunday nights, but Monday nights, too. God dammit.